Favorite Fajitas, with a Fantastic Marinade

I’ve been making fajitas for years and years, and they’ve always been a favorite on my regular dinner menu (even when I was single – I could eat the leftovers for days without getting tired of them). They’re pretty basic: seasoned chicken or steak tucked into a warm tortilla with sautéed onion and bell pepper strips, garnished with cheese, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, guacamole. Not much to it.

It used to be that I’d buy a packet of dry fajita seasoning mix, follow the directions to rehydrate it with water and oil, and marinate the meat in that. I’ve gotten to a point, though, where I prefer to make my own marinades and dressings from scratch. It’s usually cheaper and always tastes far better.

The highlight of the recipe today is the homemade marinade I use for fajitas. It’s simple, it only takes a few hours infuse into the meat, and the flavor is just stupendous. Every time we eat these, I say to E that I wish I’d come up with it years ago.

For L, I cut the steak and veggies into bite-size pieces, pile everything onto a plate with all the toppings included (but no tortilla), give it a couple of stirs to integrate everything, and let her go at it. She gobbles it right up, as you can see.

As a side note for all of you Paleo and low carb folks, I morphed this recipe into Deconstructed Fajita Bowls several times during our Whole30. We simply piled the steak and veggies into bowls on top of a bed of shredded lettuce, and piled on the salsa and guacamole. No tortillas, no cheese, no sour cream. They were still delicious, and both carb- and dairy-free:

Favorite Fajitas

For the marinade:
1 can chopped mild green chiles
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
zest and juice of one lime
3 cloves of garlic, minced fine or pressed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt or table salt

For garnish:
1-2 cups shredded cheese
shredded lettuce
chopped tomato
sour cream
salsa
guacamole

Start by making the marinade. You can either stir the ingredients together in a bowl, if you don’t mind a chunkier marinade, or you can blend it all in the blender or food processor, as shown below. The first photo is the marinade ingredients simply stirred together; the second and third photos are of the blended marinade before and after puréeing.

Stir the meat into the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of three hours and as long as overnight. Here are photos of steak with the marinade done both ways:

When you’re ready to start cooking, slice the vegetables.

Sautée over medium heat in a couple tablespoons of olive oil until tender. Set aside, covered, to keep warm while you cook the steak.

In a skillet over high heat, cook the steak (do not drain off the marinade – it cooks into a sauce) until just done. Be careful not to overcook, or the steak will be tough. Again, here are photos with both the chunky and the smooth versions of the marinade:

Serve with warm tortillas and your favorite toppings.

Here’s a printable version of the recipe.

Enjoy!